THE COLDER TEMPERATE ZONE. 79 



high as to reach the limit of perpetual snow, and but few 

 rocks or precipices. " The whole land seems covered with 

 vegetation. A low forest skirts all the shores, succeeded 

 by a broad belt of brushwood, above which, to the summit 

 of the hills, extend grassy slopes." The trees of the forest 

 are " stag-headed, gnarled, and stunted by the violence of 

 the gales;" beneath their shelter there is an undergrowth 

 of bright green feathery Ferns and several gay-flowered 

 herbs. Even if there were space, it would be useless to repeat 

 the names of trees whose forms are unknown to us, and of 

 which description could give but a faint idea; one how- 

 ever may be singled out as a specimen, which, to judge by 

 the figure of it in the ( Antarctic Flora/ is no less elegant 

 than singular; this is Dracophyllum longifoUum ; it has 

 black bark, and slender, upright branches. The long and 

 very pale green leaves look like bundles of blades of grass 

 springing out of the very tips of the twigs, which gives the 

 tree a very uncommon appearance ; it belongs to the Epa- 

 cris tribe, and has little white blossoms with five divisions, 

 which, contrasted with the green- and red-tinted calyx, have 

 a very beautiful effect. 



Only two or three of the handsome plants which are 

 found on the hills can be mentioned. Perhaps the most 



